.divx vs .avi

[loopyloops]

Maybe this fits somewhere, but I'm not quite sure.

What's the difference bet. the two? I noticed when my wmp10 didn't want to play a .divx file, and I changed it to .avi, it worked just fine. I've heard .avis called containers - does that mean they can contain .xvid or .divx or whatever?

Is is all mpeg4?

Also, does the .avi I get from my dv camera have anything to do with the .avi releated to divx?

A little concused

[techreactor]

AVI = Audio Video Interleave
MPEG4 = a type of AVI file, typically associated with DivX, XviD which are both MPEG4-codecs

The "difference" is that AVI is a container. It's not a coder/decoder. AVI contains only information that describes how the data is included in file and how to decompress video and audio (which codec to use). MPEG4 - is a compressor. Video data can be compressed with MPEG-4. AVI can have any type of codec (or no codec even) for compression, CinePak, Indeo, Huffyuv, etc whilst a "MPEG4 'file'" specifically denotes any AVI file that uses an MPEG4 codec (i.e,, DivX)

For ex.:
AVI may have MPEG-4 as Video, and MP3 as Audio.
AVI may have Cinepak as Video, and WAV PCM as Audio.

[celtic_druid]

MPEG-4 != avi.
The MPEG-4 specs define video, audio, container, subtitles, etc. XviD and DivX are MPEG-4 part 2. avi has nothing to do with MPEG-4.

The DivX media format is an extension to avi which adds chapters, xsubs, tags, menus, etc. As you have discovered it is backwards compatibile with avi, you just miss out on some/all of the extended features.

An avi from a DV camera will contain DV video and PCM audio. As pointed out already, avi is just a container and it can contain numerous streams. The official MPEG-4 container is mp4 by the way.

[loopyloops]

Thanks!! Lots to chew on here.